The error he is making is the assumption that these people have not paid taxes. How does he know that? It is true that one can comb the legal notices in newspapers near Amish communities and see instances of where medical providers have initiated litigation and collection efforts against some members of those communities for unpaid medical bills. Yet that is hardly an exclusively Amish phenomenon.
He then turns to criticizing these “homesteaders” for not properly contributing to society because of their primitive or simple lifestyles.
If we all lived “self-reliant” lives like Tony often implores us, spending most of our time on basic agricultural subsistence, then modern hospitals couldn’t exist. It’s only because most of us choose to not live agrarian “self-reliant” lifestyles that this care would be available to Tony, Amelia, and perhaps someday, their children. And what if both of them become too injured to work the land anymore? Would they starve to death, or would they survive off of the social safety net our government provides, like food stamps?
Again, Dr. Ozimek is assuming these folks have not paid taxes on the incomes they earned, the merchandise they bought, or the property they own. That is a poor assumption and one which he does not support with appropriate citations.
The rest of Dr. Ozimek’s article continues in much the same vein.
What is odd is that an economist seems to have missed point of the division of labor. These people, indeed, can live these simple lifestyles because others do not. Someone works to make the cars and trucks they drive, and pay for. Someone makes the nails and other fasteners they use to build their homes and barns. Someone makes the firearms and propellants used to fire them. And someone pumps and refines the crude oil into the petroleum products they purchase and also pay taxes on.
If Dr. Ozimek is arguing that homesteaders and other self-sufficient folks would find their world a more difficult one if the whole rest of society went away, he would be correct. If he is arguing for the value of the division of labor and the benefits that industry and science has provided to our nation, he would be correct again.
His error is assuming and arguing that people who “live off the land” are some sort of societal leaches. Some are, many are not. Again, this is not a characteristic only found among the “prepper” community. So without solid support, his argument is useless — and somewhat insulting.
By the same token, any homesteaders or members of the Amish community who argue that no one needs and education beyond the sixth or eighth grade need to have a think as well, and determine what things would be like without any products and services available to them that were the product of modern engineering or the financial organizations that make the accumulation of capital possible to create such products.
Again, while it might be pleasing to some to live a life similar to that of the mid-nineteenth century, it is unlikely that anyone would desire the medical or dental care that was available at that time.
Freedom is a wonderful thing, and that includes economic freedom.
Source: ZeroHedge
Terry Case, our elderly retired, veterans, disabled civilians and disabled veterans aren’t moochers and you didn’t read any reference to these groups of people in me reply to the post. These people “paid it forward” by fighting for our nation, paying taxes and paying into their social security accounts. Truely disabled Americans deserve the social benefits the sacrificed and paid for. As for America’s children, most of them don’t get thr full benefit they deserve because the screwed up politicians aren’t intelligent enough to develope a system that will assure that the children actually receive the benefits. I’ve actually witnessed Welfare gueens but $400 wedding cakes and obscene amounts of shrimp, crab and lobster from food stores. The entire system is screwed up and no one will admit to it, nor will they allow it to be corrected. So, I do have an enormous issue with people defrauding America’s “social programs”. And by the way Mr Case, some of these same people drove away from the Publix store in Mercedes, BMW’s, Lexus’s, Escalades and other expensive vehicles the likes of which I can’t begin to afford. So I say to you, read and understand what is actually written instead of interjecting your perceived bias. I’m sure that you are convinced of your superior intellect, yet you missed the point of my statement completely. Happy New year from one smug p***k to another!
Well, we do know that there are moochers. However, some very kind people act as “Authorized Representatives for SNAP recipients, driving to the store in their own vehicles and delivering the groceries to poor people, including poor elderly, people. Forty years ago, when my wife was a Food stamp caseworker, her office got a few irate ‘phone calls every week, to report people in nice cars buying with Food Stamps. The investigation unit always followed up, and never found a single case of fraud in those situations.Some churches, for just one example, with a mix of income levels, organize to drive the elderly and disabled to the store, or go for t hem,, as I described above. The most common form of fraud, by far, is a family which claims a child in the household, and in the household where he does not live. These would be kids who live part-time with the grandmother and part-time with their parents, and both claim him as a member of the household on their Food Stamp (Now, SNAP) application. The net loss to the government is usually under a hundred dollars a month. Yes, it’s fraud, and, in Texas, we investigate every case, even though the cost of investigation is greater than the loss through fraud, It’s penny-wise and pound-foolish, if you ask me.The simple mathematical truth is that, if we tolerated a small increase in fraud, we could cut the administrative costs by half, and, since the program spends eighty percent of its budget on administration, there would be a net saving.Emotionally, that’s hard to accept. Mathematically, it just makes good sense.
With the Trump administration’s economic improvements, we are reducing SNAP use, just because more people are rising above the poverty line. So, for the near future, anyway, we shall see less fraud.
Every right in the world leaving the hell out
Who are they moching off of . They don’t need anyone .
and that is threatening to them so they start with the name calling to ostracize
When you want everyone dependent on the government, aka Socialism, you can’t have anyone self reliant because you can’t control them.
No$#%&!@*that’s your welfare clowns and illegals.
Forbes is a bunch of assholes
Freedom
EXACTLY!!
Liberals throwing stones at others who disagree with them. What a surprise!!